'Drug Czar' Appended To Senate Money Bill

AP

Published: October 27, 1983

WASHINGTON, Oct. 26—
The Senate today approved legislation to create a Cabinet-level ''drug czar'' to run the Government's narcotics enforcement campaign, even though President Reagan vetoed a similar proposal in January.

The voice vote came after the Senate rejected by a vote of 53 to 40 a motion to set aside the measure, which had been attached to a supplemental appropriations bill by Senators Joseph R. Biden Jr., Democrat of Delaware, and Dennis DeConcini, Democrat of Arizona.

Senator Strom Thurmond, Republican of South Carolilna, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and Senators Mark O. Hatfield, Republican of Oregon, and John C. Stennis, Democrat of Mississippi, ranking majority and minority members on the Appropriations Committee, opposed inclusion of the bill but were outvoted.

''This is not the place for it,'' Mr. Thurmond said.

Mr. Reagan vetoed an anti-crime package in January because it contained clauses settting up a top drug official.